When referring to the term xe2x80x9cbeatingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdisintegratingxe2x80x9d, one is commonly understood to be referring to the loosening of a substance having a fibrous structure into fiber bundles or individual fibers. Such beating or disintegration has heretofore figured most significantly in the paper and pulp industry. The conventionally-deployed mechanical beating or disintegrating process exploits the fact that the connections between the fibers are weaker than the connections within the fibers. The beating demand should, to the greatest extent possible, result in shear stress or strain in the direction of the fibers, supported by the tensile stress or strain perpendicular thereto, while the tensile strain or stress in the fiber direction leads to disintegration or separation of the fibrous structure into individual fibers.
Machines for beating or disintegrating in use in the paper and pulp industry are, for example, the beater and the disk crusher, especially the disk crusher having toothed disk mill with two teeth plates of which one plate rotates and the other plate stands still.
The disk mill deployed for wet beating is comprised of two flat disks or hollow cones which are arranged on a shaft horizontally or vertically. One of the disks (the rotor) rotates and the other disk (the stator) stands still. The grinding phase of the disks are either serrated or, in the case of toothed disk mills, the disks possess, instead of serrations, concentric teeth rings which engage one another and have sharp edges.
It is further conventionally known to deploy conical material mills having a fixed housing provided with knives, the housing having a conical shape and having therein a conical stump of a predetermined size which rotates.
In the above-noted beating situations, the descriptions have related to machines for wet beating.
DE 437 931 C discloses an apparatus for separating the fibers of plant stacks and for follow up cleaning of the thus yielded, spinnable fibers. In this apparatus, a drill drum having a plurality of drill tools mounted on its outer periphery and a removal shaft having fibrous material removal workpieces mounted to the outer periphery thereof are operated cooperatively with one another such that the removal shaft initially removes the fibrous material from the drill drum and thereafter the entirety of the fibers are fed back to the drill drum for a cleaning operation, whereby the drill drum and the removal shaft are wrapped with grates at certain peripheral regions.
DE 845 553 discloses an apparatus for yielding spinnable fibers from fiber containing sheets and similar plant materials, the apparatus including a nail drum having nails mounted on its outer periphery and rotating within a full walled housing which has an opening for a pair of fiber material removal shafts. A shaft extends through the housing wall between the fiber material loading location and the fiber material removal opening and rotates oppositely to the nail drum, the shaft having tools thereon which exert a scraping application on the fiber material.
The present invention offers a solution to the challenge of providing an apparatus for dry beating of stalk-, stem-and/or sheet-type raw materials in order to create disintegrated material which comprises only a very small dust or debris portion and which can ultimately be pressed into pellets destined for dispersal as disbursal material for animals without the need for limiting the use of the disintegrated goods to this application alone. In this connection, it is ensured that, especially in connection with a predetermined use of the disintegrated goods for the production of disbursal materials, the dust or, respectively, the powder component thereof, is reduced to the greatest possible extent, as an increased dust portion in pellets to be used as animal disbursal material can lead to detrimental health consequences for the animals.
In connection with the present invention, the dry raw material is led to the sieve drum whereat it is accelerated radially outwardly by a rotating rotor and is beaten or disintegrated between size reducing tools which pass nearby in the circumferential direction, whereby it can be presumed that the stalk-or stem-type raw material is subjected to shear stress or strain in the direction of the fibers, supported or reinforced by the tensile stress or strain perpendicular thereto as well as by the tensile stress or strain in the fiber direction. The outletting or discharge of the disintegrated material is effected through the sleeve surface of the stator embodied as a sieve drum, whereby, in dependence upon the particle size, the disintegrated goods pass through the selected sieve holes having a predetermined size which is chosen in order to correspondingly increase or decrease the residence time of the goods in the drum.
A sieve hole size in the region of approximately 5xc3x975 mm has been shown to be particularly favorable for a right-angled hole or as a corresponding opening cross-sectional size in connection with round holes.
The friction-producing tools on the inner wall of the sieve drum are preferably configured as friction-producing tools in the manner of a grating device for cooking having sharpened apexes and/or sharp-edged projections. The friction-producing tools are preferably axially oriented, and preferably exchangeable, friction bars or strips.
In an advantageous modification of the embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, two disintegration steps are providedxe2x80x94namely, a gross or large-scale disintegration effected between the disintegration tools of the stator extending inwardly and the disintegration tools of the rotor extending radially outwardly, and a fine or small particle reduction effected between the disintegration tools disposed on the inner wall of the stator and the disintegration tools on the rotor extending outwardly therefrom.